Existential Dread
by Levity Lirum
Summary: The man had called him ‘Dread’. Was that, then, his name? The name that matched the face reflected in the water? The face tilted and the person pondered. AU Homunculus!Ed


_**Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or anything recognised as belonging to others.

I've had this sitting on my computer for nearly two years and had pretty much forgotten about it. The characters should be recognisable. The timeline is vague and some parts of FMA ignored completely.

* * *

The man had called him 'Dread'.

Was that, then, his name? The name that matched the face reflected in the water?

The face tilted and the person pondered.

The face was that of a young person, a boy; not yet a man but no longer a child. The golden blond hair was long, curling at the ends in haphazard waves and framing the peach-pale face. The eyes were large and golden, wide and wreathed in black lashes, giving them a touch of innocence. It was a nice face, he decided, a comely face.

His face.

Dread leant back, appeased.

Starting on the left side of his neck were graceful curls of murky red that marbled down the peach-pale skin of his torso and limbs, slightly more dominant on his right side. On his left shoulder was a mark depicting a serpent eating its own tail with the Star of David in the middle, shaded in the same red as the markings.

Dread stood and pulled on the tan dryzabone and broadbrim hat the man had left him. Beneath the coat, the young Homunculus named Dread wore low-riding black jeans made of an odd satin-y, silk-y material, a high collar, halter-neck, midriff tank top of the same material and a pair of matching fingerless gloves, the right one only went to mid-wrist whilst the other went to mid-upper-arm. He wore a pair of void black combat boots on his feet.

Initially, he had been wearing an odd skort thing and toeless and heel-less sock-things, but he had felt distaste at the style and, to his surprise, there had been a flash of light changing his lower apparel to what he now wore.

He picked up the travellers pack beside him and wandered down the dirt road, away from the caves were he had been 'born' and towards the town in the distance.

In the town three miles in the opposite direction to the one Dread had taken, Hohenheim of Light sat staring at his hands, back resting against Trisha Elric's gravestone.

And he wondered if Dread would become a monster similar to what Envy had. He knew he shouldn't have resurrected Edward, but…

…But he loved his child too much to let go.

Dread didn't know where they had come from, but somewhere along the way he had woken to find a small girl and a large white dog curled up next to him.

The little girl didn't know where they came from either, only that the golden man had said that Dread was her big brother and that her name was Regret and the dog's name was Grief.

Regret looked to be a little girl of four or five with a pair of long dark brunette braids and a happy, naïve disposition. Initially clad in a black sundress and sandals, Dread had bought her a bright red jacket and gloves and Grief a collar and lead.

He was glad for the

Lust staggered against the dark alley wall, holding her side and trying to hold her gasping breath to a reasonable decimal level.

"What's wrong?"

The beautiful homunculus whipped around and found herself looking down at a slightly familiar little girl and a big white dog.

Lust felt her heart stop and an odd maternal instinct to protect the girl rushed forward. Envy and Greed would kill her without a second thought. And what was she doing out at this time of night?!

"What are you doing out at this time of night?! It's dangerous!" The Sin gasped.

The little girl smiled and the dog wagged his tail.

"I'm waiting for my big brother. He should be back soon."

"What a pity you'll be dead by then."

Lust whipped around to find Greed grinning behind her. A thud turned her slightly to find Envy one her other side, expression mostly blank, almost regretful.

"Whattaya mean?" The little girl asked curiously, peering around Lust's shirt from where the Homunculus had pushed her. "Homunculi can't die. They just go back to the Gate."

The three Sins stared blankly at one another for a moment b efore looking down at the braided little girl and her big white dog.

Her big white dog with purple slit-pupiled eyes and a red mark on the fur of his right ear.

Lust almost heard the cligh in her mind, an image of a lifeless chimera child with this little girl's face.

Nina Tucker and Alexander.

* * *

Yes. Edward is dead. I don't know how. I don't know why. But he is.


End file.
